SOS sweeps Senate

The SOS ticket did a near-complete sweep of the 2015 Student Senate elections, taking 30 of the 34 elected positions.According to the unofficial results that were announced on Thursday evening in Baker Center, Gabby Bacha was elected president, Jared Ohnsman was elected vice president and Hannah Clouser was elected treasurer.Bacha garnered 1,104 votes. BARE presidential candidate Ryant Taylor came in second with 878 votes, Phoenix presidential candidate Tony Piccioni came in third with 761 votes and Student Nation candidate Ben Mathes came in fourth with 200 votes.Breakdown: Student Senate election results.“I’m feeling very excited and a little overwhelmed...,” Bacha said after her win. “I think the future is going to become a lot brighter, and I think that we have a lot of plans and a lot of things we want to do, and I’m so excited to get them done.”The only two BARE candidates elected were Honors Tutorial College senator-elect Daniel Kington and College of Arts & Sciences senator-elect Hayley Oliver. Oliver won the closest race in the election, beating out the closest opponent, SOS’ Praelo Zandonadi, by a vote count of 283 to 276.“Of course, we would have wanted our chance in student government to change it and democratize it, making it a place where we go after issues that all students care about,” Taylor said after the results were announced. “But I think with our strength as the [Ohio University] Student Union, [we’re] going to keep going forward and keep doing what we usually do, which is talking to administrators, holding them accountable and rallying when necessary.”The two Phoenix candidates who were elected were College of Engineering & Technology senator-elect Mary Murray and College of Business senator-elect Brian Stover.“I am optimistic,” Piccioni said after the results were announced. “There were a lot of similarities between [Phoenix’s and SOS’] platforms. I think Gabby [Bacha], despite campaign differences, she really is a good person. I look forward to seeing what happens and hopefully working with them and being able to still do great things for the campus.”The Student Nation ticket, which only had candidates for president, vice president and treasurer, saw all of its members getting fourth place in their respective positions.“I’m excited to continue to work with SOS,” Ellenore Holbrook, Student Nation vice presidential candidate, said. “I always hated that elections make everyone feel like they’re enemies to each other when we’re trying to reach the same end goal.”Ohnsman says that the new Senate will now be working on establishing the new Senate before the new school year starts.“I think where we go from here is just planning out everything that we really want to do and making sure that the goals we set in our platform are things that we can start working on as soon as possible,” Ohnsman said after his win. “I know the textbook scholarships and the diversity training are some things we really wanted to push, and I know that we wanted to work on getting all the positions filled, kind of creating a more functioning body where everyone can have a say.”The elections also saw the selection of the five student trustee candidates who will be sent to the governor’s office. Evie Weir came in first with 430 votes; Kendra Lutes came in second with 339 votes, Sarah-Jane Lorenzo came in third with 335 votes, Patrick Roden came in fourth with 324 votes and Alex Mayle came in fifth with 297 votes. Ali Khaledi Nasab was the only student trustee candidate that did not receive enough votes to be sent to the governor’s office, gaining 282 votes. The governor’s office will interview the five candidates and make their final decision from that pool.